User Accounts Problem

[Guest]

I own a non-domain computer and everyone in my household used to use the
Default Administrator account. Yesterday I created another account, and when
I tried to make it a limited account, it would not let me; the limited option
was grayed out, so I resorted to making it an administrator account. Today
when I turned on my computer, it immediately logged into the newly made
Administrator account which is NOT what I want. I tried switching users but
the default administrator did not appear, and the only way I can access it is
through Safe Mode. I logged into my default administrator account to delete
my newly made administrator one, but the option of deleting the account was
not there. I need to delete this account and use my old, default
administrator account. How can I do this? And if not, how can I turn my
newly made administrator into a limited account? The bubble is always grayed
out.

 

[Claymore]

I own a non-domain computer and everyone in my household used to use the
Default Administrator account. Yesterday I created another account, and when
I tried to make it a limited account, it would not let me; the limited option
was grayed out, so I resorted to making it an administrator account. Today
when I turned on my computer, it immediately logged into the newly made
Administrator account which is NOT what I want. I tried switching users but
the default administrator did not appear, and the only way I can access it is
through Safe Mode. I logged into my default administrator account to delete
my newly made administrator one, but the option of deleting the account was
not there. I need to delete this account and use my old, default
administrator account. How can I do this? And if not, how can I turn my
newly made administrator into a limited account? The bubble is always grayed
out.

First, I have to say that using the built-in Adminsitrator account as
your working account is a very bad idea. The Administrator account is
a necessary security feature for accessing all accounts and for repair
purposes. If it goes south, you're scewed. But, it's your machine and
you do as you wish.

As you've discovered, once any additional administrative user accounts
have been created, the built-in Administrator account will no longer
be displayed on the Welcome Screen. This is a default security
feature. By design, the only way to log into the Administrator account
of WinXP Home is to reboot into Safe Mode. For WinXP Pro, pressing CTRL
+ALT+DEL twice at the normal startup Welcome Screen will produce the
standard login dialog box.

or ...

To add the Administrator to the choice of logon options

Copy the text below between the dotted lines, but not the dotted lines
themselves. Open Notepad and paste it in. Save the result in a
suitable location as Administrator.reg - making sure that the
default .txt extension doesn't appear in the file name.
Double-click on the saved .reg file to merge the contents.
Restart.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList]
"Administrator"=dword:00000001

---------------------------------------------------------------


But ...

I would suggest you leave the new account and copy via the Documents
and Settings Transfer Wizard the default Administrator account to the
new account.

Luck!

 

[Guest]

As said by "Claymore" you can also download the following script to enable or
disable "Administrator" account on Welcome Screen.

http://dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_admin_ok.htm

If you were using the in-built "Administrator" account for login and it was
the only account in Windows XP, when you will create a new account it will be
the new administrator by default and limited option will grey out. When you
will log off the inbuilt Administrator account will be removed from the
Welcome Screen. Use the above script to make it available on Welcome Screen.
Now, if you will create one more new account then you will have the option to
set it to "Limited" because there should be one administrator of Windows XP
except the inbuilt Administrator account.

As said by "Claymore" you should copy all the data to the new administrator
account and disable the inbuilt administrator from the welcome screen as it
can be helpful while troubleshooting and save your from many threads.

Hope this help, let us know!

 

[Guest]

Thank you very much Claymore and RajKohli, this helps tremendously!

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I own a non-domain computer and everyone in my household used to use the
Default Administrator account. Yesterday I created another account, and
when
I tried to make it a limited account, it would not let me; the limited
option
was grayed out, so I resorted to making it an administrator account.
Today
when I turned on my computer, it immediately logged into the newly made
Administrator account which is NOT what I want. I tried switching users
but
the default administrator did not appear, and the only way I can access it
is
through Safe Mode. I logged into my default administrator account to
delete
my newly made administrator one, but the option of deleting the account
was
not there. I need to delete this account and use my old, default
administrator account. How can I do this? And if not, how can I turn my
newly made administrator into a limited account? The bubble is always
grayed
out.

IIRC, by default, the Administrator account disappears from the Welcome
screen as soon as a second account is created. You can change this easily
with TweakUI.

And no, you do not want to use thae original Administrator account for
anything other than necessary maintenance. It should never be a "user"
account.


HTH
-pk